Bi-Fi – biological wireless Internet
Researchers at Stanford University modified the bacteriophage M13 – a virus that parasitizes bacteria without killing them – so that, in addition to its normal vital activity, it produces packaging in a protein envelope inside bacterial cells and "mailing" information encoded in DNA chains. The purpose of this work is to create a so-called Bi–Fi - biological wireless "Internet network".
This system significantly increases the complexity and amount of information that cells can exchange, which will significantly strengthen control over biological functions in cell populations. The development can help translate into reality the concept of creating complex multicellular structures, the purpose of which is to perform important biological functions.
It is well known that cells use various mechanisms for communication, including chemical compounds. However, such chemical signals are both a message and a messenger. If "communication" is tied, for example, to a carbohydrate, then the range of messages is limited to only three options: "more carbohydrate", "less carbohydrate" or "no carbohydrate".
The cells inside which the modified M13 has settled can be programmed for much more complex communication, the possibilities of which are limited solely by the size of the DNA section that can be inserted into the viral genome without damaging the work of the "postman" himself. On a viral carrier, cells can be sent such genetic instructions as "start growing", "stop growing", "move closer", "retire", "synthesize insulin" and much more.
Information transmission scheme in the "iron" network (a) and in Bi-Fi (b)
(from the article Monica E Ortiz, Drew Andy Engineered cell-cell communication via DNA messaging,
published in the Journal of Biological Engineering).
The modified M13 is capable of packing DNA strands up to 40,000 nucleotide base pairs long. This largely satisfies the needs of bioengineering, since the length of most of the genetic messages that could be of interest to specialists fits into the range from several hundred to several thousand pairs of nucleotides.
Researchers have already demonstrated the possibility of transmitting genetic messages between cells separated by a gel-like medium at a distance exceeding 7 centimeters, which is very much at the cellular level.
The "biological Internet" can form the basis of bacterial factories for the large-scale production of fuels, pharmaceuticals and other compounds needed by humans.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on Stanford University materials:
Bionengineers introduce "Bi-Fi" — the biological Internet.
12.10.2012